It often can be remarkably difficult to be a black Republican, and especially one who’s also a public figure. Just ask South Carolina senator Tim Scott, a Republican leader who routinely faces abuse from the left for daring to be both African American and an outspoken conservative politician.

Yesterday afternoon, Scott was attacked by left-wing pundits when pictures of the GOP tax-reform press conference showed Scott standing in the front row, right beside the podium.

Advertisement

Advertisement

“What a shocker . . . there’s ONE black person there and sure enough they have him standing right next to the mic like a manipulated prop. Way to go @SenatorTimScott,” wrote HuffPost blogger Andy Ostroy.

In his typical polite-yet-pointed way, Scott replied to Ostroy with a tweet of his own:

Uh probably because I helped write the bill for the past year, have multiple provisions included, got multiple Senators on board over the last week and have worked on tax reform my entire time in Congress. But if you'd rather just see my skin color, pls feel free. https://t.co/KLLNXqIZ3i

Willis doubled down shortly afterward, writing that “blacks are tokens within the republican party, objects to thrust in front of the camera to detract from racist policies but with no seat at the table beyond window dressing.”

Advertisement

If he actually cared about the substance of tax reform or the debate over this bill, Willis would know that — far from being a “token” or mere “window dressing” — Scott played a crucial role in drafting the bill that ultimately passed, in the same way that he has played a crucial role in much of GOP policy-making over the last few years, particularly when it comes to economic reform.

Scott also worked successfully to include the heart of his long-time reform initiative — “Investing in Opportunity,” which I wrote about in February for NRO – in the tax-reform bill. This type of proactive, anti-poverty legislation has long been a part of Scott’s legislative approach. The South Carolina senator also founded the Senate Opportunity Coalition last year to address underlying causes of poverty in individual states and target them with specific legislation.

Disagreement over the substance of the GOP tax-reform bill is perfectly acceptable, and many of the critiques directed at the plan surely have been merited. But left-wing zealots eschew substance and expose their poisonous worldview when they choose instead to lash out at a black conservative and use the color of his skin to demean his very real accomplishments. Far from advancing the cause of racial justice, as so many on the left claim to do, they reveal how shallow their belief in equality is when they scorn a man based on his race merely because they disagree with his policy views.

Anyone who has paid any attention to Tim Scott knows that he’s a GOP leader — one worthy of standing in the front row, for a photo or otherwise — not because he’s black, but because of the tremendous value he brings to the party.

Recommended Articles

Most Popular

On January 29, tabloid news site TMZ broke the shocking story that Jussie Smollett, a gay black entertainer and progressive activist, had been viciously attacked in Chicago. Two racist white men had fractured his rib, poured bleach on him, and tied a noose around his neck. As they were leaving, they shouted ...
Read More

Modern prophets often say one thing and do another. Worse, they often advocate in the abstract as a way of justifying their doing the opposite in the concrete.
The result is that contemporary culture abounds with the inexplicable — mostly because modern progressivism makes all sorts of race, class, and ...
Read More

This week, the story of the Jussie Smollett hoax gripped the national media. The story, for those who missed it, went something like this: The Empire actor, who is both black and gay, stated that on a freezing January night in Chicago, in the middle of the polar vortex, he went to a local Subway store to buy a ...
Read More

To understand how far left (and how quickly) the Democratic party has moved, let’s cycle back a very short 20 years. If 1998 Bill Clinton ran in the Democratic primary today, he’d be instantaneously labeled a far-right bigot. His support for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Defense of Marriage Act, ...
Read More

You may have missed this news, but Chris Pratt, one of the most likable celebrities in modern American life, is now problematic to some people. But he’s not alone. Justin Bieber, Kylie Jenner, and Selena Gomez are under scrutiny now also. Their crime? They’ve attended Evangelical churches — such as Hillsong ...
Read More

In a viral exchange at a congressional hearing last week, the new congresswoman from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, who is quickly establishing herself as the most reprehensible member of the House Democratic freshman class despite stiff competition, launched into Elliott Abrams. She accused the former Reagan official ...
Read More

Bernie Sanders, the antique Brooklyn socialist who represents Vermont in the Senate, is not quite ready to retire to his lakeside dacha and so once again is running for the presidential nomination of a party to which he does not belong with an agenda about which he cannot be quite entirely ...
Read More

Jussie Smollett’s phony hate-crime story could have been taken apart in 24 hours, except for one thing: Nobody wanted to be the first to call bullsh**.
Who will bell the cat?
Not the police, and I don’t blame them. Smollett is a vocal critic of President Donald Trump who checks two protected-category ...
Read More